Up to 30% less sugar in Boni private label breakfast cereals

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Colruyt Group is reducing the sugar content in its Boni private label breakfast cereals without adding sweetener or altering the taste. ​ It concerns nine references of Boni Selection breakfast cereals for children and adults. Based on average sales per year, this will result in our customers consuming a total of 84.6 tonnes less sugar annually. With these nutritional improvements, Colruyt Group is taking up its social role to promote a healthy lifestyle among customers and encourage them to make conscious choices.

Committed to a healthy lifestyle

Tackling the issue of people being overweight and obese remains a major societal challenge, including in Belgium. Sugar is one of the major causes, along with processed food or too little exercise. As Belgium's largest retailer, Colruyt Group wants to take on its social role to promote a healthy lifestyle among its customers.

The group actively works on the nutritional composition of its house brand products to contribute to a healthy and balanced diet. “Based on our commitment to improve our private label products, we want to increase the nutritional value of breakfast cereals where possible. Breakfast cereals currently contain an average of 25 g of sugar per 100 g and we want to change that," Ivyn Degeest, nutritionist at Colruyt Group, explains. “We are gradually phasing it out because we want consumers to get used to a taste that isn’t as sweet. We also deliberately decided not to replace sugar with sweetener. So in the future, the sugar content in breakfast cereals will continue to decrease where possible,” Degeest adds. ​

By reducing the sugar content in Boni's house brand breakfast cereals, Colruyt Group is contributing to the new covenant signed by the industry. By making its product range more sustainable, Colruyt Group aims to facilitate and encourage sustainable and conscious consumption and encourage and help consumers adopt a more balanced diet.

30% less sugar, just as tasty

The recipes of the Boni Selection house brand breakfast cereals were adapted – with a maximum reduction of sugar, while retaining the taste – in consultation with nutritionists, product developers and suppliers. In the modified recipes, sugar was not replaced by sweetener and in the taste tests the breakfast cereals were found to be just as tasty.

The sugar content has been significantly reduced in nine of the eleven references of Boni Selection breakfast cereals for children and adults. The sugar content of the breakfast cereals used to be between 9 g (for Rice Krips) and 25 g (for Choco Krisps) per 100 g. It is now between 7 g (for Rice Krips) and 22.2 g (for Choco Bubbles) per 100 g. In two references – Choco Krisps and Cereal Flakes – a sugar reduction of more than 30% was achieved. The sugar content in these breakfast cereals has evolved from 25 g to 17 g per 100 g and from 17 g to 8.5 g per 100 g, respectively.

The change to the recipes of the nine breakfast cereal references will result in customers consuming a total of 84.6 tonnes less sugar per year (based on average sales per year).

‘On pack’ information for consumers

Customers can find more information about the new nutritional composition of the breakfast cereals of the Boni Selection private label on the packaging and on the Colruyt Group owned channels. The packaging clearly states that the composition has been improved and contains less sugar. Today, some references are already on the shelves. From March 2024, all Boni breakfast cereals with an adapted nutritional composition will be available at Colruyt Lowest Prices, Spar and Okay.